Life living in historic Dublin, GA and the Capt Hardy Smith House: Tilling of the yard at the HSH completed

It is a warm, breezy, sunny day at the Hardy Smith house. The temperature reached into the mid 80s today with a slight threat of rain. Ella Smith's mini pink roses are in full bloom. John put rose fertilizer on them and they popped out in abundance a couple of days ago. They are absolutely beautiful.

The tilling and weed removal of yard is completed with the exception of the area behind the house. The mounds of soil have been spread out and additional dirt from the basement and the dirt mound in the back will be used to cover the top soil before fertilizer and grass seed is put down. Most of the top soil now is pure sand and grass will not grow in that. Maybe Bermuda grass will. We are not putting Bermuda grass in the yard.

John used old bricks to outline the half circle that will be our driveway in front of the house today. In addition to the outline of the brick walk below the porch steps. Now things are starting to get exciting because the hard, grunt work is over and soon the fertilizer will go down then the grass seed. Our goal is to have this job completed by the end of next week. Our window to getting the grass planted for this season is closing. John is in his element. He absolutely loves working in the yard. We plan to purchase a power washer to prepare for the next project, to clean the outside of the house. The major work will begin next season along with finishing the back part of the yard behind the house.

The azaleas in our newly planted flower beds are doing well. They have not taken root to the existing soil so we have to continue to watch and water them as necessary. My wildflowers should begin to bloom within the next week or so. The type I planted will attract butterflies and hummingbirds. It is a mixture I bought at the local home improvement store. The huge holly tree on the side of the yard has been cut back tremendously. It probably has not been pruned in over 50 years. The picture below is what the holly tree looks like now after we trimmed it up. This tree was so large, John had to get up on his ladder to reach the upper branches to trim. Before the tree was cut, the branches touched the ground all the way around and the circumference of it made it hard to rake leaves under it last season. It will sure grow and thrive now now that it has a new lease on life. It still needs some shaping up but that will be another day.

The area of the yard which I will call, 'My garden' (until I think of a better name) had to be tilled by hand, which I completed. Grass cannot grow in this area which will be perfect to put down rock pebbles and stepping stones in addition to the existing bird feeders and bird baths I have there already. I want to fence in that section for privacy at some point.

Yesterday, I celebrated my 1 year of residency in Dublin. To celebrate, John took me out to Applebee's restaurant. It was very enjoyable. We have come a long way since I moved to Dublin and to the Hardy Smith House. We have done so much work to the house and outside to make it look like a home. We still have a way to go before all the rooms are complete. With two people constantly working on improving a 3,000 square foot, 137 year old house, it takes a lot of time and effort to keep it looking beautiful. I am no stranger to keeping things up since I grew up on a 20+ acre horse farm.

No bats have returned since their visit a few days ago. I think they got the message we don't want them here and they can go find another place to live. The dogs are happy and healthy. Lady loves rolling in the yard. This picture of my dog, Lady, was taken in the back of the house where the yard will be tilled and seeded next spring. It did not stop her from enjoying it nevertheless.